Despite losses, has Charles Lee won Hornets over in first season as Charlotte’s coach?
In the din of a cavernous TD Garden before the usual sellout crowd arrived, Charles Lee is sitting feet from the on-court perch he nestled in this time a year ago, reflecting on the journey.
Friday night represented Lee’s initial trip back to Boston since taking the head coaching reins of the Charlotte Hornets in June, making the leap from an assistant under Joe Mazzulla into the big chair at the end of the bench. That’s probably why he beamed thinking about his days with the Celtics, recalling exactly what it took for him to get to this point in his career.
“It actually feels great,” Lee said. “Great for a number of reasons. No. 1, I get to walk in here now as the head coach of a team and an organization that I’m happy and proud to be with. And it feels great because there’s just so much history with this team and this organization. So, I think anytime you come into the Garden, you feel the history, you feel everything that they’ve accomplished.
“And then I think the third part for me is, you were part of so many accomplishments here. And this place helped build me, groom me a little bit more to see it from a different perspective, and to win a championship, and what it takes from a coaching standpoint, what it takes from his player preparedness standpoint. And so there’s a lot of emotions and feelings, but a lot of them are just of joy.”
That was evident as Lee traversed the bowels of the arena leading up to the Hornets’ 130-94 loss to Boston in Charlotte’s penultimate game of the 2024-25 campaign. Although it didn’t rise to the level of a family reunion, Lee certainly had his share of congratulatory pats on the back and a bevy of well-wishers welcoming him to his old 2023-24 stomping grounds.
Even Jayson Tatum’s son, Deuce, had a few playful words with Lee.
But Mazzulla? Not so much. That doesn’t coincide with his general makeup.
“You know what?” Lee said. “I respect it, though. With Joe, we’ve built a great friendship. And it’s one of those things that you know when the season is going on you are the enemy. And you know he’s so competitive, he’s so driven, that that is the focus. And if you aren’t on his team, you are the enemy. And I get it and I respect it. But I know that when it’s not the season, he’s a great friend.
“He’s been a great source or mentor for me. I’ve learned so much from him and how he thinks about the game, how he prepares himself to be able to coach. And I just have so much respect for what he does. So, learn from him all the time.”
Lee’s initial season at the end of the Hornets’ bench has certainly been an educational experience. Three-fifths of his starting lineup missed significant chunks of games, beginning with Mark Williams’ injury in training camp that cost him two months. Brandon Miller’s season-ending wrist surgery and LaMelo Ball’s arthroscopic procedures on his right ankle impingement and right wrist also surely weren’t on Lee’s bingo card.
Factor in only 19 wins and it’s been a rough patch for the Hornets, yet Lee never wavered. He’s remained even-keeled, something that’s not easy to do in his profession, and has traits that bring something the players appreciate.
“Just energy and consistency,” Miles Bridges said. “It’s tough to be a coach when you’ve got so much going on during the season. So, the way he’s dealt with everything, the way he’s been everyday consistent, coming in same coach, same person everyday, it really speaks volumes about him. He’s been great for us.”
And quickly became a favorite of Jusuf Nurkic.
“He’s not afraid of confrontation in a good way,” Nurkic said, “just talking either at practice or on the plane or off the plane, he speaks his mind in the right way. So, I like the communication part about it.”
That’s not all, either.
“He’s a player’s coach,” Nurkic said. “He was playing, so he knows most of the things, what young people think. And I think he’s not afraid to mess up, too, as a coach and make mistakes. So, I think that’s a big key. I respect that. He’s younger, but also trying to coach as hard as possible.”
Communication also is a strong suit for Lee. There’s no dictatorship-style approach. Particularly when it comes to major alterations or ideas that pop into his head.
“Yeah, before he makes big decisions he asks me or Melo or Brandon, asks one of us how we feel about it,” Bridges said. “He loves having our input on stuff. So, yeah, he’s for sure a player’s coach.”
That approach comes straight from Lee’s coaching tree, which features a key branch that sprouted from his Boston days. He believes he gathered lots of necessary experience that aids in decision making and navigating intense situations.
It’s attributable to knowledge gained under Mazzulla’s tutelage.
“I think I learned the most about how to deal with pressure,” Lee said. “When you are part of the Boston Celtics, there’s an expectation every night, every season to win. And to win big. And I love how there’s just … you think that people just kind of show up and they just have success.
“But all the work that everyone in that organization put forward with these high expectations and they didn’t let that stop them from just moving forward every day, it prepares you.”
Just by virtue of the Celtics’ static-electricity-like atmosphere.
“When you play a regular-season game here and the crowd is going crazy,” Lee said, “it’s no different than when you use the playoffs and you’re in the second round and the crowd is going crazy and you’re down five or whatever it is, I just love that everything that the organization does, everyone matters, everything matters, and it helps you prepare and be together for when the most intense moments come.”
Those are the memories Lee grasps onto, hoping to pass that knowledge along to the youthful Hornets. The franchise holds the NBA’s longest current postseason drought and has to master some of the basics first.
Lee doesn’t have all the answers, although he boasts championship pedigree, and continues to slowly gather pertinent knowledge while attempting to master the intricacies that accompany being a head coach.
“The hardest … one of the things for me this year is understanding what my vision was, and what our vision is,” Lee said. “And through some of the results that don’t go your way, still trying to find the positives and still trying to see that. ‘Oh, the vision is still coming together and piecing together.’ And there’s a success story here in player development, there’s an injury that happened, but now Nick Smith Jr. gets to play a little bit more, and we’re seeing the talent that’s budding there
“So, there’s just been all these things that when you’re the head coach, it takes a deeper toll on you. And you can be stuck by it. But I’ve had to do a really good job of just continuing to find what were the things that were good positives that came out of either that game or this whole season.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
